Cameron turns 20 in just over a month. In my almost 20 years of parenting I have stayed over in a hospital with a child TWICE. Once when Jack had a tummy bug and the second was a week ago when Emma had her appendix out. I can say in all honestly, twice was more than enough!
I have never been the mom who heads to the doctor when my kids get sick. We wait it out, treat with tissue salts and other more natural options and for the most part it works out – until it doesn’t. Emma started complaining of tummy cramps on Monday. It was an on/off pain and she still went to karate that afternoon no issues but she kept complaining but there was no fever or vomiting so I didn’t think it was her appendix. But by Wednesday evening she was crying in pain. David diagnosed appendix on Tuesday already so he took her to the ER on Wednesday evening. As they got the car, she threw up and again when they arrived at the hospital and by the time they checked her out, she had a fever.
Eventually at 1h00 Thursday morning they confirmed it was her appendix. Fortunately it had not ruptured and they weren’t in too much of a hurry to get her admitted. They had to drive to a different hospital to get admitted – apparently the paed we needed for the surgery was at Midstream. This meant they were actually only admitted at 3h00 on Thursday morning – NONE of us had slept.
I met them at Midstream at 7h00 the next morning – I think David and I had about 2 hours of sleep at this point – Emma was still awake.
Long story short, she had her appendix removed at 13h30! She finally fell asleep en-route to the theater thanks to the pre-med and slept until the next morning.
I assumed that an appendectomy was a simply operation and you could go home the same day – I assumed wrong, very wrong.
There was the anesthetic. Everyone reacts to anesthetic differently – I cry, my brother apparently swears at everyone and Emma gets angry – really angry. She spent about 24 hours getting really angry with me, the doctor, the nurses, the physio, the food lady. Everyone got a little bit of her wrath.
There was the impact on the lungs. Apparently they tilt you back on the operating table, blow gas into your body to make it easier to get to the appendix but this obviously pushes the lungs up. Emma’s oxygen levels were low for most of the night after the surgery and the physio came to give us some breathing exercises to do to get the lungs back on track. I was not expecting this at all and the low oxygen levels was a little unsettling.
Expect some shoulder pain – another side effect of the position of the surgery. We used a hot bag to ease the pain on Emma’s shoulder, fortunately by the time we were discharged it had gone.
Everything had to come out. This was probably one of the most stressful things to happen. In all the pre-op discussions the doctor listed the risks to the bowel. So when Emma started very suddenly with a runny tummy it was very disconcerting. Fortunately it was all normal and eased up after about 12 hours. (Make sure you pack extra clothes.)
The hospital stay was 5 days. The main reason for the long stay was that she needed antibiotics intravenously. Again I was not expecting such a long stay.
Recovery time is 4-6 weeks. I know an organ was removed but 4-6 weeks of no sports for a kid like Emma is possibly the worst thing to happen to her. To make it worse, she missed her karate and gymnastics competition. Trying to keep her calm has been the greatest challenge so far.
My point really, is that if your child has their appendix removed, it is not a simple procedure.
Our stay at Midstream Medi-Clinic was pleasant enough but it was still a hospital stay, so crying babies, nurses in and out, mostly unhealthy food. They did put a bed in her room for us to sleep on and they were pretty flexible with visitors so Jack was allowed in most of the time.
I do not take for granted the fact that we have only ever had to stay over in a hospital twice with the kids. It is an exceptionally emotionally exhausting time. It took me the whole of last week to catch my breathe again.
Each child is different and each experience is different but do not underestimate the seriousness of this particularly surgery.
